Hi there, my name is Gemma. I've been stalking the forum for a while now and thought this was a good time to start posting my own stuff.

I've just graduated (1st, BA (Hons) Creative Computer Games Design), so I now have the time to amend pieces of work- where I otherwise had to ditch because of deadlines. I have a traditional/digital 2D background and I now do 3D, but I need to improve (who doesn't?). It is very difficult to get a job these days- especially if you are fresh out of Uni.

I appreciate any feedback/critique! Please let me know if I'm doing something silly too, thanks for taking interest.

Thank you for anyone who takes interest. I am nervous about posting like most people are, I noticed that this forum is full of professionals- but I've been told I needed to start somewhere... so I guess I will post my latest work-in-progress here.

I've been helping out a friend for a competition. He says he wants a soldier model to pose on his vehicle. It's all very quick and rough, he chose the second design, so I will probably detail it a bit more and start blocking out the character soon.

Model Ref:

I've done a bit of modelling, it's going rather slowly. I expect I have really poor technique when it comes to modelling. Hopefully I can learn from this- any tips/crits would be really useful!

Started modelling in pieces... I sew them up later.


Improved topology and progressed.

Okay I got some feedback saying he needs a bit of bulking up. I tried to shift a few polys, but I think most of the bulking up will have to be in Zbrush.

It's been a busy few days, as I had my graduation two days ago
Here's the base mesh ready for zbrush. I also took such a long time on the hands! Damn appendages and their awkward edge flow.

The hands took me a day! But I think I understand how to do it quicker next time.


Finished, and added some edge loops to create a more even square mesh in certain areas.

For the sake of having good presentation, I've been reworking my old models/textures to display on my website. I painted the picture also.

More props I've been retouching:

This is something that's outside the maze area of my game level project.


Details of pieces:

Book case textured:

Creepy Candle Holder:
I literally altered the UVs and redone the texture. I think now it's as good as it can be

Originally Posted by JinSuen

Book case textured:

After some feedback I improved the bookcase's poly count and texture placement. I even changed the textures a bit.

Today I was feeling a bit down, so my progress has been slow with this. I scrapped my old cabinet model because it was so bad and started again. Got some references too. It looks better (much better than my old one).




I'm pretty stuck on how I should alter the geometry on the feet of the legs... they take up 360 odd tris alone.

I don't really like it, it's way too clean. Maybe will come back to it, feedback welcome.

Hey,

I think the diffuse work on this looks great, but there are a few things you should consider changing/adding.
- The surface definition of the wodd is off by a fair bit. You want it to look smooth and polished. I'd up its spec and remove some of the noise from the spec also. The specular highlight on the photo ref is very smooth, so i'd also remove a lot of the grain texture from the normal map (polished would doesn't bump out its perfectly flat and smooth).
- Give the drawer a bit of believability, things like wear along the edge of the open drawer from where it rubs against the side and some blemishes in the diffuse here and there.
As for defining metal as a material i'd recommend making your metal diffuse darker and the spec for it almost white. At the moment it seems you have around a 50% grey for both spec and diffuse which is causing it tol ook more like stone.

Hopefully that didn't come across as too nitpicky, but seeming as you said you weren't happy with the piece i thought i'd offer some suggestions to help improve it. What are you rendering these props in aswell? Just out of interest.

@gilesruscoe ah, actually it all makes sense. Maybe after all that it will look more convincing! I'll work on it asap. And no not at all, thank you for giving feedback, it's good knowledge!

Added patterns and given it a worn look. Thank you for helping me out with the scratches! Also did something stupid and saved over my big version <.>....

Originally Posted by JinSuen

Added patterns and given it a worn look. Thank you for helping me out with the scratches! Also did something stupid and saved over my big version <.>....

Improved again:

That improved cabinet looks great Gemma! Nice to see that my recommendation for those stripes around the boxes worked out.

@Waltreu- Hey! nice to see you on polycount. Yes thank you for the suggestion, it worked out really well in the end!

Update: I've been improving the bed very slowly, here's a shot of the bed post in zbrush- I haven't touched zbrush in a very long time... bad me. I've also been using some reference for this:

Awful late with the update, and it's going slow. Had a bit of trouble with baking the maps and at one point I had to start again, but that's no problem. I rendered out what's currently going on in Zbrush and in marmoset I rendered the finished bedposts (or whatever they're called). Baking was a nightmare, but now I know what to avoid.

The new materials on the dresser came out great! Bed's looking good so far, if I could make a suggestion I'd say maybe add a headboard to the bed and more pillows, some of them leaning up against the headboard to give it a bit more complexity.

Course you could just make 1 pillow and clone it after :x

Finally, I thought I'd never get this done. I spent a good few hours trying to bake the maps. Xnormal proved to be much faster, but for a few bits like the drapery, it didn't seem to recognize which side it was meant to bake. So then I had to open up Maya and painstakingly wait for the viewer to actually catch up. Anyhow, the diffuse is coming soon, I'm thrilled to have this complete.

Originally Posted by dii

The new materials on the dresser came out great! Bed's looking good so far, if I could make a suggestion I'd say maybe add a headboard to the bed and more pillows, some of them leaning up against the headboard to give it a bit more complexity.

Course you could just make 1 pillow and clone it after :x

Oh jeez! Thank you for the suggestion. After I posted my latest update too (I didn't check back for a while ><) I'll definitely duplicate the pillows. Thank you!

Forgot to update sketchbook, I've improved the topology/shape, and have a WIP shot of the diffuse/spec on too:

Quickly came up with a generic looking window+curtain design for the room I'm working on (to go with the bed etc).